VERSUS 
While they were far from perfect, the Connecticut Whale had a good all around team effort anchored by Chad Johnson’s first star performance between the pipes and beat the fading Bridgeport Sound Tigers 3-2 in front of 6,023 at the XL Center Friday night.
Head Coach Ken Gernander was pleased with the teams’ win, snapping a three-game losing streak, but wasn’t thrilled by his team’s performance. “I thought some guys were pretty sloppy in areas, and part of it was both teams coming back from a long (All-Star) break,” He said. “We could have made better plays with the puck at times, and there were some penalties that we didn’t need to take and that’s being addressed.
“I’d like to see everybody hitting on all cylinders, and I don’t think our game is where it was before we had the rash of injuries and call-ups. So we have to continue to push until we squeeze out our A game on a consistent basis.”
“(Johnson) made some good saves, and their goalie made some good saves. There were some breakdowns that probably shouldn’t have occurred and we could have been prevented a little better in some areas but Johnson was good.”
Johnson, (28 saves, 15-17-3) who’d lost his previous three starts and was 2-7 in his last nine, knew something wasn’t right and that he needed some time with Rangers goaltending coach, Benoit Allaire.
“We just talked, “Johnson said of the half-hour meeting he had on Thursday. “We talked about my game. We watched a little video of last year’s Colorado game (with the Rangers). Just a couple of clips of that and kind of just talked.
“I told him I just haven’t felt the same like the way I played (last year). For me, it’s all about my posture and my stance. We looked at things and just tried to keep things simple. I admit I haven’t really been consistent this year throughout games, so it has been tough. We just talked about little things and simplifying my game, just beating the pass, that’s (Allaire’s) biggest thing, is just beat the pass. He was just reinforcing the basics and his philosophy and what can make us successful.”
“Bennie had said be aware of where the players are, and for me my success was being aware of where guys were when they got in the slot,” The Whale’s top netminder said. “I was in good position, pushed into it and was square to the shot earlier than usual.”
On the win Friday night, Johnson as usual had a lot of praise for the guys in front of him. “Guys did a good job. We talked today with (Assistant Coach) J.J. (Daigneault) and the d-corp & tried to focus on making sure that we had communication; if I couldn’t see pucks and playing the puck behind the net and I think that helped a lot today too. We had a lot more communications and I was seeing a lot more pucks, so like J.J. said, if I see it, I stop it.”
Kris Newbury chipped in the game winner with his sixth of the season and was playing in his first game back with the team after his latest call-up with the Rangers. “We’ve been struggling. Last weekend when I was here (a 4-2 loss to Manchester and a 3-2 loss to Portland) we didn’t play very good hockey, but (tonight) we played together for 45-50 minutes.”
Newbury acknowledged the goaltending improvement but still feels there’ more work to be done. “Chad played well for us and kept us in the game. Even when they got a late one (by Wes O’Neill with 6:56 left), he was able to shut the door for us. It’s good to see, but for a forward’s standpoint, and I think I can talk for most of the defense, we have to be better in our end.”
The Whale needed a fast start to build some confidence on after never fully recovering from falling behind Portland early in their past game. That became especially important against a team struggling as mightily as the Sound Tigers are. Bridgeport recently snapped an eight game losing streak and entered this one having lost another four in a row.
Just 3:22 into the contest, the Whale lit the red light on a very nice Jeremy Williams goal.
Brodie Dupont advanced the puck into the Sound Tiger’s zone and at the left point threw the puck behind the defense and into the right corner. Jeremy Williams beat Mark Wotten to it and advanced the puck behind the line to Ryan Garlock. Rob Hisey negated Garlock but not before he was able to slip it back to Dupont behind the net. Dustin Kohn abandoned his position and went after Dupont, but the Whale winger quickly put the puck in front to Williams, who got in front of Jesse Joensuu and one-timed it over the shoulder of Koskinen (26 saves, 5-15-0).
Johnson then clamped the Tigers down stopping prime-time scoring chances by Hisey (6:14), Labelle (8:57) and then his best of the period When Brett Motherwell was stoned off a 2-on-1 feed from Brady Leisenring (11:00).
Koskinen had some strong stops of his own, especially off of Newbury at 1:17 and a second at 1:57 to start the second period.
Johnson erased a point blank shot by Justin DiBenedetto in the slot at 5:45.
Off the ensuing faceoff and another good scoring chance, tempers began to rise and Devin DiDiomete ended up in the box 14 seconds after DiBenedetto’s golden chance.
It only took 8 seconds for the Tigers to cash in. Off a faceoff win, DiBenedetto gets position in front of Wade Redden and gets three free whacks at the puck in the corner of the net in front of Johnson’s right pad. The third does the trick and gives double digits in goals on the season with his tenth.
The Whale answered back with a controversial goal less than a minute later.
Chad Kolarik rushed the puck up right wing and fed Tim Kennedy in the right circle. Kennedy, with Robin Figren sliding down in front of him fed a streaking Evgeny Grachev on the left side. After a great stop by Koskinen, Leisenring gets his stick under Grachev and trips him up clipping the goaltender in the chin and he went down.
David Ulstrom stood over his fallen netminder who stayed down.
“I thought the referee was going to whistle the play dead,” Kostinen said. “I thought I felt OK, but the next time I saw the puck, it was in the net.”
The puck got swung around the left side and then Tomas Kundratek fired it across to the right to a wide open Jyri Niemi. The Finnish defenseman had a wide open net to shoot at and didn’t disappoint for his first AHL goal.
“The guys told me that I would have been fined if I didn’t score,” Niemi who was all smiles after the game. “When Tomas got the puck, I looked down and the goalie was falling down, so I thought I’d take my time and score. Tomas saw me wide open, so it was a good play by him.”
Kundratek chased down and got the puck for what was Niemi’s first AHL goal.
When Howlings asked the one time New York Islanders 3rd round draft pick (2008, #72 overall) if he thought a monkey had been lifted off his back, Niemi said while laughing and said, “Oh, yeah, it’s like a gorilla.”
Niemi, who was projected to be a goal scoring defenseman and was actually involved in the first trade made between the Rangers and the Islanders in 37 years, Niemi for a 2010 6th round pick, had yet to score a goal in 31 games, the longest drought in his life.
“It has never taken me this long to score, maybe 12 games in my last year of juniors (with Saskatoon of the Western Hockey League). In juniors, I used to score a lot, so it’s a big relief to get the one out of the way here.”
After the referees told him the goal had counted, Koskinen took off his helmet and slammed it into the ice.
With 9:40 left to go in the period Dupont threw the puck into the right wing corner where Dustin Kohn retrieved it and sent it around the boards to the left wing side. Wotten touched passed it up to Jesse Joensuu on the half boards where he was met by Dupont. Joensuu’s clearing attempt was picked off by Redden at the left corner of the blue line. Redden slapped it on net where it hit Koskinen in the left pad. Newbury got behind & between Kohn and Wotten, picked up the loose change and deposited it under Koskinen’s glove for what would prove to be the game winner.
“We haven’t scored a plethora of goals lately, so those are the kind of goals that we need more of,” Gernander acknowledges the offensive importance that Newbury brings to his team. “We need him to get into those dirty areas either to get second or third attempts net-front or just occupy people in front or create some traffic.”
“I have a different role down here (than in NY),” Newbury remarked. “I just want to help this team win hockey games.”
Kolarik had a breakaway after stealing a puck from Motherwell, but when he was looking to go over the glove missed and put it over the net just 3 minutes into the final frame.
The Tigers would add their second and final goal with 6:56 to go in the game. Wes O’Neil brought the puck into the zone on the left wing side and flipped it over to Leisenring coming up the slot. Redden drifted over to the strong side leaving room for Leisenring to shot on Johnson from the slot. The puck hit Johnson’s right pad and rebounded in front, But O’Neil beat Jared Nightingale to the spot and the pinching d-man lifted the puck over the leg of Johnson for the score.
Newbury, who’s 37 points (6g, 31a) is second only to Jeremy Williams’s 41 (23g, 18a) on the Whale summed it up saying that, “There are definitely some things to work on next week when we have a couple days off to get some better practice habits and try to clean up our end a little better before we start on the offense.
Bruce Berlet’s unabridged story on Howlings. The Bridgeport story comes from the keyboard of the irrepressible Mike Fornabaio at CTPost.com.
GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET
STANDINGS:
(via theahl.com)
VIDEO:
SOUNDS OF THE GAME:
Ken Gernander:
Kris Newbury:
Jyri Niemi:
Chad Johnson:
NOTES:
* Tens… The Whale gave up exactly 10 shots in all three periods. You don’t see that too often.
* The Whale continue to show marked improvement in their drawing capacity. They are 12th overall currently at 137,260 seats sold and averaging 5,084 in 27 home dates.
Here are some interesting numbers.
As the Hartford Wolf Pack, over the first 12 games, the team drew 41,822. That included opening night of 7,013 and their last night of 7,385. Over that span the team averaged 3,485 fans a game. They had a record of 6-11-2-2.
Since becoming the Connecticut Whale, the team has drawn 95,438 fans over 15 dates. They’ve had attendance highs of 13,089 for their opening night, 12/29 had 7,913 including their largest walk-up in franchise history, a game with 9,118 and another with 10,872. As the Whale they are averaging 6,363 per game and have a record of 16-8-0-2.
The increase in attendance is a staggering 54.7% and the record has gone from 5 games under .500 to 8 games over.
Still want to question whether it was a good idea or if it would work?
* By the end of the weekend, if you add in his games in New York, Newbury will have played seven games in 10 days.
LINES:
Dupont – Newbury – Jeremy Williams
Grachev – Kennedy – Kolarik
DiDiomete – Tessier – Jason Williams
Garlock – Eizenman – Soryal
Redden – Nightingale
Valentenko – Kundratek
Niemi – Bickel
Johnson
Grumet-Morris
(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)
SCRATCHES:
Dale Weise – Upper Body, Day-to-Day
Todd White – Concussion, Indefinite
Chris McKelvie – Foot Surgery, Indefinite
THREE STARS:
1. CT – C. Johnson
2. CT – K. Newbury
3. CT – J. Niemi
ON ICE OFFICIALS:
Referee:
Chris Brown (86)
Linesmen:
David Spannaus (8)
Luke Galvin (2)
NEXT GAME:
The Whale have a tough Home-and-Home on the schedule for this weekend with the second place Portland Pirates. Saturday night the battle begins at 7pm and Sunday at the XL Center at 3. Bob Crawford has the pregame a half an hour before the puck drops.
To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $6.99 at AHL-live.
For Ticket information for all home games, call (860) 548-2000.
Too far away or can’t make it? Listen live at WTIC.com or from your cell phone or computer visit www.twitter.com/howlingstoday for complete live in-game coverage of all games both home and away.
SCORE-SHEET:
Bridgeport Sound Tigers 2 at Connecticut Whale 3 – Status: Final
Friday, February 4, 2011 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Bridgeport 0 1 1 – 2
Connecticut 1 2 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Connecticut, Williams 23 (Dupont, Garlock), 3:22. Penalties-Klementyev Bri (holding), 18:19.
2nd Period-2, Bridgeport, DiBenedetto 10 (Reese, Hisey), 6:07 (PP). 3, Connecticut, Niemi 1 (Kundratek, Kolarik), 7:02. 4, Connecticut, Newbury 6 (Redden), 11:20. Penalties-DiDiomete Ct (roughing), 5:59; Bickel Ct (hooking), 7:28.
3rd Period-5, Bridgeport, O’Neill 4 (Leisenring, Klementyev), 13:04. Penalties-Williams Ct (tripping), 1:01.
Shots on Goal-Bridgeport 10-10-10-30. Connecticut 6-15-8-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Bridgeport 1 / 3; Connecticut 0 / 1.
Goalies-Bridgeport, Koskinen 5-15-0 (29 shots-26 saves). Connecticut, Johnson 15-17-3 (30 shots-28 saves).
A-6,023
Referees-Chris Brown (86).
Linesmen-David Spannaus (8), Luke Galvin (2).
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